Although not a leader with mass appeal, Ananth Kumar had a reputation of being a sound strategist with expertise in organisational affairs.
Bengaluru: Union Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar’s demise is a big setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s plans in Karnataka, the only southern state where the saffron outfit has a significant presence.
The BJP, which holds 16 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, had been looking to improve its tally in the 2019 Parliamentary elections, in which it is likely to be pitted against a formidable alliance of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).
Although Kumar, a Brahmin, wasn’t seen as a mass leader with his influence largely confined to his Lok Sabha constituency, he was known to be a fine organisation man and was part of the party’s strategy team.
With the BJP weighing the option of a change of guard in the state — looking to replace the influential Lingayat leader B.S. Yeddyurappa, 75, with a younger successor — Kumar, 59, was seen as one of the front-runners.
“Though Kumar has been out of state politics for more than a decade, his expertise in planning and shoring up support for the BJP will be thoroughly missed,” said a senior party leader who did not want to be identified.
That the BJP missed Kumar’s expertise and planning was evident during the recent bypoll at the Jayanagara assembly constituency, which falls under Kumar’s Bengaluru South Parliamentary constituency. Kumar had stayed away from the campaign due to ill health as the party lost to the Congress in the elections, for the first time since 2004.
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The Advani protege
Kumar, many in the BJP believe, sharpened his skills as a strategist and crisis manager when he was handpicked by party patriarch L.K. Advani to work under Pramod Mahajan just after he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996.
“He has been the man who helped people across party lines to raise their issues with the Centre. If anybody wanted an issue resolved even if it meant the intervention of the Prime minister’s office, Ananth was always the go-to-man, across parties,” said a senior BJP functionary, who did not want to be identified.
There have been several occasions when the BJP found itself in a bind only for Kumar’s political acumen and organisational abilities to rescue the party’s image and bring it to power.
Partymen quote the example of the 20-20 coalition government of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP in 2004, where the chief ministerial post was to be shared between the two parties for 20 months each.
When the JD(S)’s H.D. Kumaraswamy did not let go of the chief minister’s chair in 2007, it
was Kumar who advised Yeddyurappa, then deputy chief minister, to pull the plug on the coalition and approach the electorate. That decision helped the BJP form a government by itself in Karnataka — the first time it had breached a southern state.
“The party will be crippled by his absence as he was a member of the core committee, an office-bearer and a man on whom the party depended on many aspects,” said another party functionary. “He ensured that despite the bitter differences, the party put up a unified front when it came to facing voters.”
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Chief ministerial ambitions
Kumar always nursed an ambition to be the chief minister of the Karnataka but that did not fructify due to multiple reasons. He was one of the front-runners for the post when the BJP emerged as the single largest party in 2004.
But politics scuttled that prospect. At first, the Congress and the JD(S) joined hands to form a coalition government but that fell and when the BJP propped up the JD(S), to form the 20-20 government, Yeddyurappa emerged as the top leader.
The fact that Kumar was considered a front-runner did not go down well with Yeddyurappa, who claimed that the party would not have reached the heights it did without the support of his caste group, the Lingayats.
This caused a major rift between Yeddyurappa and Kumar. The major factor that went against Kumar, in his desire to become the chief minister, was that he was a Brahmin and lacked the mass support that Yeddyurappa enjoyed due to his Lingayat status.
“He did have a chance to become the chief minister but that did not work out. But I feel that he has been given good posts, be it as the general secretary of the BJP or as a Union minister,” said senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy, who has consistently worked against Kumar in every election.
“This time, however, he could have been given a better post by PM Modi. His proximity to Advaniji possibly caused him to be content with a portfolio that did not completely showcase his political talent.”